Welcome to the Chef's Alliance

Your guide to the top 1,000 chefs and artisans. Whether a chef, mixologist, sommelier, pastry chef, barista, or brewer, these innovative, culinary masterminds are performing at the highest level in their craft across the digital space. The Chef's Alliance is not handpicked, but ranked by a 300-point system using engagement, sentiment, and influence as metrics analyzed by Foodable Labs. Want to see how the industry’s favorite chefs and artisans scored? Dive into the Chef's Alliance and the Top 100 Social chefs, right here on Foodable Network.

Not many chefs could get away with serving a tasting menu that costs over $1,000 after tax and tip for two people. Then again, not many chefs are as accomplished as Joshua Skenes. Named a “Rising Star Chef” in 2010 by The San Francisco Chronicle and as a “Rising Star” by StarChefs.com, Joshua has certainly earned a place on this list.

While studying at the French Culinary Institute in New York, Joshua also held a full-time position in the kitchen of Jean-Georges Vongerichten, pulling the kind of double duty that very few chefs could manage. Upon graduation, Joshua moved to Boston, where he helped open Troquet and worked with Anthony Ambrose at Ambrosia. With significant experience under his belt, Joshua moved out to San Francisco in 2003 to work as the executive chef at Chez TJ, where he received three and a half stars from The San Francisco Chronicle. After a brief stint working with Michael Mina, Joshua opened Saison. Saison began as a pop-up concept in which, like many other California chefs, Joshua focused on only local ingredients to create dishes that also doubled as immersive experiences. Eventually, Saison moved to a five-nights-a-week operation, and Joshua serves a different tasting menu every day.

Specialties & Resources

Joshua’s lifelong passion for the culinary arts shines through in his dishes, and the care and attention he shows each and every meal make the finished product all the more rewarding. With just 8 tables in his space, Joshua endeavors to provide an intimate and exclusive setting in which guests can enjoy his creations.

Past offerings have included white sturgeon caviar over cured and smoked sturgeon belly, served over kelp and a gelée made of the grilled sturgeon bones; coal-kissed sea bream with monkfish liver and a fried cherry blossom leaf; pickled horse mackerel served over rye toast; kelp-cured golden-eye snapper; roasted abalone with a liver-and-caper sauce; Fort Bragg sea urchin with river vegetables, wild fennel and soy, served over sour Tartine bread; cured grated Japanese mountain yam and cultured vegetables topped with golden trout roe; poached and grilled asparagus served with green garlic; Dungeness crab with sea greens, seaweed vinegar and crab shell gelée; scallop-stuffed artichoke heart with wild thistle barigoule; poached celeriac with herbs and spicy broth; white asparagus with foam and perigord truffle sauce; black-truffle “cookie” with chicken liver, grilled pecan honey and pecan powder; and dry-aged beef grilled in a bed of hay and served with fire-hung and rehydrated carrots.